Brooklyn’s The King of Rocksprings preps debut EP

The King of Rocksprings began over 10 years ago as the recording project from Brooklyn artist & musician Scott Sosebee while Sosebee was playing drums in various other bands. He originally moved to Athens in 1995, dropping out of a Savannah, GA art school to play drums in the punk band Space Cookie. After touring the country several times, alongside such acts as the New Bomb Turks and Man or Astro-Man?, Space Cookie took a hiatus when their bass player jumped-ship to join the Columbus, Ohio band Gaunt.

It was then that Scott got his first introduction to indie rock and was recruited for the Kindercore band Japancakes, where his schizophrenic and heavy drumming style caught the attention of recent Athens transplants Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink, who were looking for a drummer to complete their band at the time, Little Red Rocket.

Scott joined up with Fink and Taylor and toured the country, all the while still concentrating on the design efforts he had originally left behind at art school. In addition to recording and touring with Little Red Rocket, Sosebee found himself designing CDs for Japancakes, Masters of the Hemisphere (featuring members of Still Flyinâ€™), Vic Chestnut and Brute, Of Montreal, country music superstar Jennifer Nettles, and later, for Saddle Creek artists Azure Ray and Now itâ€™s Overhead. He also designed tour posters for R.E.M., Yo La Tengo and Guided by Voices.

After the demise of Little Red Rocket, Sosebee found himself bored in the small college town (and hopelessly single in an ocean of mostly straight friends), and set his sights on New York City. After spending a few years inside the worlds of design and flying trapeze, the unthinkable happened: while attending a trapeze workshop in upstate New York, he fell from a trapeze rig into the safety net, which came detached upon impact. He then flew 20 feet and landed on the concrete, suffering a severe concussion, lacerated head, separated clavicle, and a femur broken in three places. After two surgeries, a titanium rod, and 8 months in a wheelchair and on crutches, he realized that he wanted to start making records again.

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The result is The Milkman Vs. The Postman Problem, featuring appearances by Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor of Azure Ray, Ben Crum of Great Lakes and L.D. Beghtol of 69 Love Songs. Itâ€™s a 16 minute romp, subtitled as a â€œComedy in 5 Partsâ€ , based on Sosebeeâ€™s experiences moving from a small town to New York City, but centering on his experiences with the boys heâ€™s encountered in his 6 years in the city. Founded in a southern musical tradition, The King of Rocksprings is raucous, fun, pretty, passionate, American and full of boy splendor that showcases his music, design and illustration skills all in one product. â€œI decided to write about all the boys who had fucked with me since I moved to the city. Some of the songs sound brutal, but in reality, the lyrics are supposed to be funny,â€ Scott says when asked about the content of the EP.

With his musical style and influences having little â€” if any â€” consistency, Sosebee wrote all of the songs in two weeks and tied them together stylistically with the instrumentation â€” mostly acoustic guitar, drums, bass, and trumpet. He played all of the instruments on the record, except for the trumpet, and a few noted other parts, (performed by the guests above). In addition, producer and engineer, Andy LeMaster (Bright Eyes, Azure Ray, R.E.M.) had his hands on deck for one of the tracks.

The outcome: one manâ€™s perhaps comedic approach to boy-on-boy relationships in New York City.

Artist – The King of Rocksprings
Album – The Milkman vs. The Postman Problem
Label – s/r
Release Date – December 8, 2009